Improvement in wool-drying frames



STATES EDWARD DUFFEE, OF HAVERHILL, MASSAOHUSETTE ASSIGNOR TO HIM- SELF AND HENRY M. BRAGG, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN WOOL-DRYING FRAMES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 142,561, dated September 9, 1873; application filed May 5, 1873.

ing fleeces or masses of wool after having been washed, in order to desiccate or remove the moisture therefrom.

I am aware that devices, variously constructed, have been employedfor the above purpose. Trays or supporters have been made with a series of parallel wiresextended across, and nailed or fastened to their framework. Trays also with wire net-work have been used, but both'of these, although allowin g a free passage and affording a good circulation of the air through them, are objectionable, on account of the oxidation of the wire, which notonly stained or discolored portions of the wool in contact with them, but unless great care was taken soon became unfit for use. I am also aware that trays or frames have been made by nailing series of slats across Wooden supportingrails. So, also,

stretches or tables have been made, with saw kerfs or openings made through them; But in these latter cases the great area of supporting surface caused much of the drippings falling upon them to be arrested and retained in contact with the wool, and thereby produced an imperfect desiccation of the wool. The object of my invention is to obviate these evils and produce a simple, durable, and effective device, by which the wool is not only kept frombeing discolored but readily and eqnably dried and my invention consists in an improved article of manufacture as made with a wooden frame, provided with a longitudinal groove in each of its outer vertical faces, and having a series of thin strips of wood or rattan reeved through the frame, and crossed or interlaced in the form of open basket-work.

In the drawing, A A A A are four wooden bars, constituting the frame-work of the device, the upper face of each being made of a convex shape in order to allow the wool to be readily placed on the frame or removed therefrom. On each outer vertical face of the frame a longitudinal groove, b, is made, the same having a depth a little greater than the thickness of the rattan, and serving to so embed the looped ends of the latter as to prevent any wear or abrasion while being handled. Through each of these bars a series of transverse holes is made at suitable distances apart, and through such holes thin narrow strips to a of wood or rattan are reeved and interlaced at right angles, they being carried alternately back and forth through the. holes and crossed, as shown in the drawing, their ends being suitably secured to the frame-work.

This improved frame may be supported in the drying'room upon bars extended across the room, or be suspended from the ceiling by means of ropes provided with hooks to connect with the frame.

The above-described peculiar construction 'of the frame with the thin narrow strips of rattan interlaced, as above set forth, and constituting a frame for drying wool, .I believe to be new and useful for the purpose designed.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is- As an improved article of manufacture, the above-described wool-dryin g frame, consisting of the bars A, A A and A grooved longitudinally, and having thin strips of wood or rattan reeved through the same, and crossed orinterlaced in manner substantially as shown.

EDWARD DUFFEE.

Witnesses:

F. P. HALE, F. O. HALE. 

